Payback
by CeliaEquus
Summary: When undercover, Steve kisses Clint to make the man they're trailing look away. It works, but Clint cops some teasing from the others when they find out about the kiss. Time to get some revenge on Steve. Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers, or any other Marvel thingummies, nor am I making money from this. Possibly future Amerihawk, mentioned Pepperony.


**Prompt:**

"**When they're trying to follow a bad guy who starts back towards them, Steve thinks 'I've got this,' and kisses Clint, remembering what Nat told him on the escalator.  
>Tony isn't helping by asking Clint what it was like to kiss Captain America or asking Steve which of their two resident SHIELD agents was the better kisser.<br>Maybe he even gets Clint a t-shirt with the slogan I kissed Captain A on it."**

"Payback"

It was good to have some time alone with Clint, away from the others. Even though Clint technically had Coulson in his ear, since they were following a suspected HYDRA agent and it was a mission, not an outing to bond. But Clint could multi-task, listening both to Steve and Coulson at the time. He responded to whichever conversation he was in the middle of, eyes constantly on the man less than fifty feet in front of them.

Soon it became clear that, while Clint was an excellent and practised spy, and Steve wasn't doing too badly himself, the agent had sensed that he was being followed. Either that, or he was looking for someone else. Because only a couple of seconds after thinking this, Steve realised that the guy was doubling back towards them.

_Shit_, he thought. He tapped Clint on the arm, and noticed that the archer was already tense, had probably also seen it. Well, Steve had this.

"Kiss me," he whispered. Clint stared at him, nearly running into someone.

"What?" he said incredulously.

With no time to waste, Steve slid his fingers into Clint's short hair and pulled him close, ducking his head at the last moment. Their lips made contact, and he squinted, keeping an eye on their suspect while making it look like he was deepening the kiss (not that Clint was obliging). The man barely glanced their way before looking elsewhere, hurrying back past them. Most people looked away, in fact. Steve lingered for a moment, slowly grinning against Clint's lips. Eventually, he pulled back, amused to see Clint's stunned expression.

"Wha… why did…"

"Natasha taught me to do that, to make people look away," Steve said. "He didn't recognise us, so I count that as a win. Come on, let's get going before we lose him."

* * *

><p>In a comedy of errors, it turned out that the man they were trailing was loyal to SHIELD, not HYDRA, and that he really hadn't recognised Steve and Clint – which Steve definitely did not crow about – but thought that they might be following him. It led him to suspecting that <em>they<em> were HYDRA… which explained why he called backup in the form of three more loyal, non-HYDRA agents.

On the plus side, they were up four agents. On the down side, it was kind of a wasted afternoon.

"Not entirely wasted," Tony said, grinning from the screen he had raised. "Lucky I was trawling through the footage of the mall, `cause I came across this little gem."

He played – in 3D holographic – the kiss Steve had forced onto Clint. The real Clint covered his face, cursing and threatening to do many bad things to Steve's shield. And his bedroom. The last threat just made the others laugh harder.

"Gotta ask, because I've never had the opportunity before," Natasha said, gently kicking Steve's foot from across the sofa. "Which of us is the better kisser?"

"Well," Steve said, appearing to give it some serious consideration, while Clint looked at him, horrified, through the gaps between his fingers. "I don't know. He wasn't exactly participating all that much. I think I'd need to try again. Clint?"

"No!" Clint said, scrabbling out of his armchair to even more laughter. "Not happening."

"Hey, Barton, what was it like kissing Captain America?" Tony asked. There was a definite twinkle in his eye as the video played on repeat. "If I wasn't with Pepper, I'd jump at the chance to find out." Steve chuckled. "Come on. Romanov won't spill."

"And I'm not telling you about any of the other people I've kissed since waking up," Steve added. "Female or male." Tony choked on his drink, which really did serve him right. "So, Clint. Wanna help a guy out? Or should I just say that Natasha's better at kissing than you? Because without a helpful comparison…" He grinned charmingly. "Or I could wait until Christmas and catch you under the mistletoe, if you think that's a better id—"

Clint was so fast no one had even realised he was moving until he was in Steve's face, and yanking him up by the collar. Steve nearly went cross-eyed before he noticed that he was being kissed, and kissed well. He closed his eyes and tilted his head at Clint's urging. A tongue swiped along the seam of his lips, and he parted them obediently. After a few seconds of deeper kissing, Clint ended things abruptly. Steve was now the one staring while Clint smirked.

"Payback can be a bitch," he said.

Then the archer licked his lips absently and walked out of the room, pace quickening as he neared the door. He closed it firmly behind him, and his footsteps rapidly faded away. All the while, Steve was fighting to keep his more embarrassing reactions under control.

"I think Clint won that one," Natasha remarked, voice dry but eyes sparkling with humour.

"Yeah, I think so," Steve said. His voice was higher pitched than usual. Thankfully, no one commented on that.

* * *

><p><strong>For a prompt on the Avengers kink meme, round and page 25. I felt like writing something, and so I wrote it. Didn't take all that long (kind of what I was aiming for, at that time of night). Possibly not exactly the tone the OP wanted, but I have a habit of causing my stories to descend into slash territory. And I do love this pairing, even though I haven't written much of it. Amerihawk for the win!<strong>

**Because Steve is 95; he isn't dead.**

**Review, please!**


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